Harvey presents crucial test for Trump administration, FEMA.
Disaster chief ‘knows hurricanes,’ predecessor says.
Facing what WASHINGTON — could be the most powerful storm to slam into the United States in more than a decade, President Donald Trump and the team he has put in place at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were bracing Friday for one of the most important tests of his presidency.
The stakes could be exceedingly high. Few events test the effectiveness of an administration — or bear as many political risks — like a major natural disaster.
Trump used the power of his preferred megaphone, his Twitter account, to signal to his more than 36 million followers on Friday that he was closely watching the storm as members of his administration show they were on top of the looming crisis.
Trump’s Homeland Security adviser, Thomas Bossert, told reporters that the president has been in close touch with the governors of Texas and Louisiana, the two states most likely to be affected, and was preparing to sign a federal disaster declaration to support the local response.
“This could remain a dangerous storm for several days,” Bossert said as he outlined the federal government’s preparations.
He added: “Now is not the time to lose faith in your government institutions.”
Trump received a briefing on the preparations Friday morning from top Homeland Security officials, including Bossert; White House chief of staff John Kelly; acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke; and FEMA Administrator Brock Long.
Long, a former director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, is leading the federal response effort. His selection has been well received by emergency managers around the country, who say Long is battle-tested and well-connected with the states’ emergency teams.
Long’s predecessor, Craig Fugate, declined Friday to expound on the agency’s preparations, but he had good words to say about the administrator.
“Brock can speak for himself,” he wrote in an email. “But he knows hurricanes.”
Long said Friday that the agency had established an incident support base at Randolph Auxiliary Airfield near Seguin, roughly 125 miles inland from where the storm was expected to make landfall. Personnel there were stockpiling 77,000 liters of water and 250,000 meals, as well as supplies like blankets and tarps for affected communities.
The agency also placed teams to assist in the response at emergency posts in Austin and Baton Rouge, La.
FEMA was being assisted by the Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In a joint statement Friday, ICE and CBP said they would continue to operate in the affected area but they would not conduct “routine noncriminal immigration enforcement operations” at evacuation sites or assistance centers.
For a sense of the stakes, Trump need look no further than President George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, which pummeled New Orleans in August 2005, crippling the city and leaving well over 1,500 people dead. The response of Bush’s FEMA administrator, Michael Brown, and the perception the president had incorrectly assessed the storm’s impact, are widely thought to have undermined the rest of his presidency.
Bush’s assertion at a news conference, even as the agency was mismanaging its response, that Brown was doing a “heck of a job,” became a national punch line. Brown resigned a few days later.
Bossert and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested Trump would be updated on the storm this weekend at Camp David in Maryland.
Bossert said he expected Trump would directly address the nation when he felt it was appropriate, and Sanders said the president would be looking to make plans to visit the affected area as early as next week.
Officials continued to downplay concerns that vacancies at top government posts, including the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, would hinder the government’s response. Sanders said Thursday that Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general who was the department’s secretary before becoming chief of staff, would be “sitting next to the president throughout this process.”
But Kelly’s old post is not the only relevant position without a permanent occupant. Two deputy director nominees at FEMA still await confirmation. Trump has not yet nominated someone to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center. And the center itself is in the midst of a leadership search after its director, Rick Knabb, left in May to become an on-air expert at the Weather Channel.